Recipes for the Table and for Life

Category Archives: Breakfast

School started this last Monday for us and we are in full swing at this point. As most of you know, eating as a family is very important to me. I like to gather my family around the dinner table and talk about our day and not think about homework, lesson plans, etc for a few minutes. However, after re-entering the full-time work force two years ago, getting dinner made is harder than it was for many years. Tonight I prepped this dish for my high schooler to start in the slow cooker once she gets home on Monday and I made breakfast tacos to zap in the mornings for a little sturdier breakfast for each of us.

How did I find time tonight to do all this? Well, I cooked a roast in the slow cooker for Sunday lunch and told everyone they were on their own for dinner! Then tonight I was able to spend about an hour in the kitchen getting these two separate things ready. So this is my plan for the “School-year Swing”– to try to prepare ahead of time so that I can enjoy my time at home with my family more and not be standing in the kitchen too often on weeknights.

And now, I’m going to sit with my feet up for a bit before the second week of school gets underway!

One of the places we miss from Pennsylvania is Linvilla Orchards– so many good memories at this orchard that was along our daily route. This weekend is their Apple Festival so we decided to have some fun of our own here in Texas and try a recipe that we were praying would be similar to Linvilla’s fabulous Apple Cider Donuts.

We will still have to work on the recipe to get it to be as good as Linvilla’s but they aren’t bad!

Like this:

Today is the first day of our spring break and I’m happy to report that it actually feels like spring! Now tomorrow is another story but at least we have today.

This morning I made a recipe that I recently found on pinterest. It seemed easy enough for a mindless-morning recipe. I hate breakfast recipes that make you think too much or that you have to cook for an hour or so (meaning you have to wake up way before your family to get breakfast ready).

This one was quick and easy and it is totally gone after my family had breakfast. We served it along with a bowl of fruit.

Crescent Roll Breakfast Ring

Preheat oven to 375°

Scramble on the stove top

5 eggs (I tried to do 6 as that is what I had left in the carton and honestly….it was one egg too many!)

Lay out on a parchment lined pizza pan or cookie sheet

crescent rolls in a circle that looks much like sun rays!

Add to the crescent rolls:

8 slices of fully cooked bacon (I purchased a box of fully cooked bacon to make this an easy prep breakfast)

Yum…Bacon!

Add to the ring in the following order:

1/3 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (or colby-jack)

cooked eggs

1/3 cup of shredded cheese

Fold the crescents over and tuck in or pinch the point to the long side of the roll

Like this:

Recently my girls and I were at the library. One of my favorite things to browse are the cookbooks. On this trip I found “Everyday Paleo” by Sarah Fragoso. The Paleo diet is one that is like our ancestors ate (Paleo meaning ancient and prehistoric). She says, it is food that is not processed or modified. It seems to cut out things like rice and flour. I’m not sold on 100% Paleo-living but I always love to find a new, healthy recipe so I’m trying a few things out of the cookbook.

One recipe I made this last week was the Egg Cupcakes. I made them one evening and then we have eaten on them for breakfast for the next several days. I love to have a quick, healthy breakfast choice in the house. Here is how I made them:

Egg Cupcakes

Preheat your oven to 350º and grease two muffin pans (Ms. Paelo says to use coconut oil…I used PAM on one and did indeed try coconut oil in the other)

Whisk in a large bowl

10-12 eggs

Add to the eggs

Black pepper to taste

In a food processor place and then process until finely chopped but not smooth:

1 green onion (cut into thirds)

1 to 2 zucchini squash (cut into large chunks)

5 to 8 slices of cooked bacon (I actually cooked the bacon when I was making dinner that night and using Ms. Paleo’s brussel sprouts and bacon recipe—will post that one later)

1 cup of roasted red peppers

Add this to the egg mixture.

Add to the processor and finely chop:

4 cups fresh spinach

Add chopped spinach to the egg mixture and mix well.

I then sprinkled a bit of salt into the egg mixture too. Not much but just a bit.

Using a 1/4 measuring cup, fill the muffin pans.

Bake the egg cupcakes for 20-25 minutes or until the eggs are set in the middle.

Once mine cooled off, I placed them in a rubbermaid container in the refrigerator for my family to grab for breakfast (25 seconds to reheat in our microwave). Everyone has enjoyed them and I have enjoyed that there are so many vegetables and omega 3s in them (I used the Trader Joe Omega-3 eggs for this recipe). This is not something that we will have everyday in our breakfast selections, but once a month would be a great addition to our morning diet.

Like this:

We start school in a few days and my head has finally accepted it. I have decided what meal we will have that first evening (one I can prep ahead) and of course snacks too. These are normal plans each year. However, I have taken a new step this year and prepared some items for “fast breakfast”.

Our middle schooler has to leave an hour earlier than her old elementary school schedule so I’m thinking this means a few more breakfasts on the run! My Aunt Gwen shared an easy recipe several years ago for some yummy Breakfast Tacos. So tonight, I served leftovers for dinner and spent my time in the kitchen preparing breakfast for the freezer.

Breakfast Tacos

Bake Ahead of time:

1 large baked potato

Brown in skillet:

1 lb regular flavored bulk sausage (I used Jimmy Dean)

Set sausage aside to absorb the grease

Chop into pieces and brown in left over grease:

the baked potato (I did take most of the potato skin off)

one large onion (I cut this really small as my girls say they don’t like onion)

Add pepper to taste and just a smidgen of salt

Scramble in butter over low heat

12 eggs

Add pepper to taste

Add to eggs while they are cooking

6 slices of American cheese

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl

Place spoonfuls in tortillas and wrap in foil (20 tortillas)

Place a few spoonfuls in for a large taco and a spoonful and a half for a small taco.

First fold

Now fold the sides in over the first fold and wrap up in foil.

Reheat- Oven at 275° for 35-40 minutes or Microwave, remove from foil and wrap tortilla in a paper towel. Heat for about 40 seconds for one taco.

Wrapped and ready for the freezer. I marked the Large and Small Tacos and dated them.

Like this:

Today my handsome fella turned 40. Yesterday I asked him “What would you like for breakfast on your birthday?” His reply: “40 cinnamon rolls”….not just cinnamon rolls but 40 of them!!! Have no fear, I was up for the challenge! Look what I made:

Then there was the gift. I wanted something that was “40-ish” but not mean. So I came up with “40 Rocks!”. The girls and I each wrote, on a total of 40 rocks, things that we love about him and put them in a jar that he can keep on his bookshelf. The girls loved my idea and we had fun sitting down while Brad was at work Tuesday evening to finish up our gift for him.

Now….how did I make those mini-cinnamon rolls? Well I googled “easy homemade cinnamon rolls” and found this recipe:

To get enough to do both numbers, the 4 and the 0, I did two batches

Mini-Cinnamon Rolls

In a small bowl mix together:

1 Tablespoon of slightly melted butter

4 Tablespoons of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 Tablespoon of flour

Open:

1 can of crescent rolls

Take half of the dough and separate at the vertical seams. (I pulled the dough into the four rectangles to create the rolls)

Press the diagonal seams of the dough together so that the dough is smooth.

Spoon the cinnamon mixture onto the dough.

Roll the short side up and continue with the remainder of the dough.

Cut into 2 inch slices…I got four out of each rolled section, but if I had thought ahead and cut 5 in each then I really would have had 40 cinnamon rolls!

Place all the rolls on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes

When the rolls have cooled, mix together the icing. I forgot about the icing until after I took the pictures and we were all ready to eat- I threw it together but it needs work….here is what the “googled” recipe said to do:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons milk….and by typing that I realized my problem….I put in 2 Tablespoons of milk. No wonder my icing was a bit runny! So make sure to use two TEAspoons and your icing should turn out better than mine!

Like this:

We have to capture breakfast on many days as our time for a family meal. So I am often looking for recipes that meet my requirements of easyandyummy for which we can use at breakfast time. I found this recipe in the Women’s Day March 2013 issue while waiting at the dance studio for one of my girls earlier this week. I had to actually hand write the recipe down as I don’t have a smart phone to take a picture of it! I think I got everything written down correctly as it came out fabulously this morning. We give it 3 1/2 smiley faces. My 7 1/2 year old said that she didn’t care for the strawberry chunks yet she ate half of her serving so she did kind of like it. The only drawback is that it takes 45 minutes in the oven and then you have prep time on top of that. For a Saturday that isn’t a problem but on a weekday I would probably make this the night before as I am NOT a morning person.

Strawberry-Banana Bread

Heat oven to 350º

Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. (I like to use shortening and then dust over it with flour)

In a large bowl whisk together (I actually did this the night before so I had less to do on Saturday morning)

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp kosher salt

In a medium bowl lightly beat:

4 eggs

Add to the eggs:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest (I’m sure this would be yummy, yet I didn’t have a lemon to zest. Rather I put in almost a 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice instead)

Whisk to combine the egg mixture.

Mash and stir into egg mixture:

2 large, ripe bananas (about 1 cup)

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix just until incorporated

Fold into the mixture:

1 pound of chopped strawberries

(if you like walnuts in your house you can put in 1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts….but my family doesn’t care for nuts)

Pour the batter into the prepared dish and bake for about 45-50 minutes until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. It took our bread 45 minutes.